You know that feeling when you're coming down with something, you feel off and less than well, but you haven't yet identified what bug it is that you're struggling against? I had been stuck in that limbo of an unidentified problem in regards to ADHD for years; longer than I care to think about, really. I'm most aware of it from about high school onward up until my recent diagnosis last year just before the holidays, but even looking back earlier to my grade school years I can see evidence of it as well.
Being able to put a name to the problem was definitely not a cure all solution, not by any means, but it was a very empowering and freeing moment for me. I no longer have to look back on the struggles of getting up and ready to go on time, forcing myself to concentrate on school work in or out of the classroom my inability to meet certain deadlines or my trouble in allowing other people to finish speaking before replying as a fault that was solely my own. I wasn't simply lazy or rude or just defiant for the sake of going against the grain. These were things that were facilitated by my ADHD that I was unaware of how to work around instead of against. As corny as the saying may be, knowledge is power. Now that I've been armed with a diagnosis, I can use that knowledge to build up a system that works for me.
It had been my initial intention for this blog to be exclusively a crafting blog (primarily sewing, obviously) but it would be nearly impossible to talk about my crafting without mentioning my struggles with depression and ADHD. I've been working on setting up a system of keeping organized and on track. It's a process that takes a lot of trying one thing to see if it works and then, if it doesn't, either tweaking to work better or discarding it and trying something different.
Do you ever go to do one thing and find yourself picking up a half dozen more projects along the way? This is a problem that I run into quite often. Last week I was taking photos for a post and noticed that the frame and glass of the painting I was photographing needed a good cleaning. Then while I had the dusting supplies out I decided that I needed to do the dusting and reorganizing of the bookshelves in the living room. Right now! I finished about two thirds of the shelves that day before getting back on track with the things I was meant to be working on and only just finished the dusting and reorganization project yesterday.
Our 'homework' for my Attention Deficit group this week is to share the things that we do in our lives to keep organized and I've decided to do a similarly themed series this week on the blog. Whether you have ADHD or not, I hope that you find something useful within my system. If you adopt something into your own routine or if you are inspired by it and it sparks a method of your own invention, I would love to hear about it!
Our 'homework' for my Attention Deficit group this week is to share the things that we do in our lives to keep organized and I've decided to do a similarly themed series this week on the blog. Whether you have ADHD or not, I hope that you find something useful within my system. If you adopt something into your own routine or if you are inspired by it and it sparks a method of your own invention, I would love to hear about it!
